In conflict zones, the report said, women and girls have sometimes been abducted or forcibly recruited precisely because they were educated. It cited as an example the Lord’s Resistance Army, the renegade guerrilla force of Central Africa, which has captured secondary school girls in northern Uganda known for their literacy and mathematics skills, making them “valuable recruits for military communications work.”
In addition to attacks on schools, the report said, “many more girls around the world routinely experience gender-related violence and other forms of discrimination that limit or prohibit the free exercise of their right to education.”
In Central America, for example, the report said, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees has documented cases of sexual violence, threats and harassment of girls by criminal gangs, forcing them to abandon school.
The report also spoke of what it called the ripple effect from attacks on girls’ education. Not only do they affect “the lives of the girls and communities who are directly concerned,” the report said, “they also send a signal to other parents and guardians that schools are not safe places for girls.”
The report is to be submitted for use in a coming United Nations study on the role of women in peace and security since 2000, when the Security Council adopted what is considered a landmark resolution on gender equality.
The study is being led by Radhika Coomaraswamy, a Sri Lankan lawyer, rights advocate and former under secretary general who has specialized on issues concerning children and armed conflict and violence against women. It is to be released before a high-level United Nations review, scheduled for October, on progress since the Security Council resolution 15 years ago.